The Polish Bride (1998)
"De Poolse bruid" (original title)

Polish deceived woman hides from pimps on a Dutch farm, and shares an intriguing romance with the farmer.

Director:

Karim Traïdia

Writer:

Kees van der Hulst

Stars:

Jaap Spijkers, Monic Hendrickx, Rudi Falkenhagen

Nominated for 1 Golden Globe. Another 6 wins & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview:
Jaap Spijkers	...	Henk Woldring
Monic Hendrickx	...	Anna Krzyzanowska
Rudi Falkenhagen	...	Pimp
Roef Ragas	...	Son
Hakim Traidia	...	Mailman
Soraya Traïdia	...	Krysztyna

Storyline

Drama on the dawning love between a Polish woman and a farmer from Groningen. Anna is forced to work in a brothel, but manages to escape. She's found, exhausted and scared, by Henk (the farmer) who offers her a place to stay, but her past chases her.

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Plot Keywords:

farm | flashback | farmhouse | rape | rural setting

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Details

Country:

Netherlands

Language:

Dutch German Polish

Release Date:

26 March 1998 (Netherlands)

Also Known As:

The Polish Bride

Filming Locations:

Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands

Box Office

Gross:

$82,638 (Argentina)

Company Credits

Production Co:

IJswater Films, Motel Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

89 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Leading actress Monic Hendrickx played the same part in the Australian remake of this movie, Unfinished Sky.

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Goofs

The main character drives a Volvo 240 sedan. When the go to the city, the car changes into a wagon.

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Crazy Credits

The credits state that the author of the story distances himself from the editing done by the director of the movie.

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Connections

Featured in The 56th Annual Golden Globe Awards (1999)

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Soundtracks

"Zamiast"
Written by Wlodzimierz Korcz (as W. Korcz), Magda Czapinska (as M. Czapinska)
Performed by Monic Hendrickx

User Reviews

Greatly told and shot movie.

It's not a movie with many spoken lines in it. After all the two main characters hardly speak the same language. The movie allows its images to mostly tell the entire story. I sort of always like this, since after all that's also how movies were intended to be in the first place. The great camera-work and compositions of course help with this. It also makes the movie a slow going one but this works beautiful and effective for the movie its story and storytelling. Still, because the movie is rather short, it tends to rush things a little, especially toward the end. It's also the reason why the movie ends sort of on a false note.

This movie is a real character movie. Almost the entire movie focuses purely on just the two main characters. The characters don't explain anything to each other about how and what. They just accept things as they are and don't look back, even though the both of them, as implied, had issues in the past. They are definitely not at love at first but they also most certainly don't hate each other. They slowly and steadily grow- and open up toward each other and also learn from each other, in many different ways. It doesn't make this movie 'just' another unusual love-story but something that goes deeper and therefor also gets more effectively shown on the screen.

The movie gives a good portrayal of the farm life and the empty flat real peaceful nature. I think it's a real missed opportunity from Dutch film-makers to not shoot more movies there. It's cheap to make, also since you don't have to close down any roads or shops or stuff like that and it's of course beautiful looking, which really gives the movie a lot of atmosphere without having to manipulate or set up anything. And abroad, people always seem to like these type of movies and these movies, with this kind of atmosphere, have a fair chance at the international market and festivals. After all, this movie even received a Golden Globe nomination for best foreign film.

I never thought I would hear an Ede Staal song in a Dutch, or just any movie. Ede Staal and his music are unmistakably connected to the entire province of Groningen. His songs are often about the province and they perfectly capture the life, feeling and atmosphere of the province. So, one of his most famous songs 't Hogelaand' totally fits within the movie, captures its atmosphere and what it tries to tell.

Jaap Spijkers is a good actor, although I admit that he is a better actor now then he used to be 10 years ago, at the time of this movie. Or perhaps it's just that he isn't really the sort of actor for the leading type of roles. Same goes for Monic Hendrickx by the way, who at the time still was a rookie in the movie business. He did a fairly good job with his accent, although people who are actually not from Groningen but play a Groninger character always tend to make the accent sound way too thick.

The movie is about some relevant issues, such as Polish woman being forced to work in the prostitution in Western countries, the hard financial situation and time for Dutch farmers and the slinking population, amount farms and shops in the rural areas.

The movie is currently getting an Australian treatment as well, named "Unfinished Sky", again with Monic Hendrickx in the same role. The story will probably work the same but will the atmosphere as well? Doubtful, which is a negative thing, since it mostly was the atmosphere that carried the movie and almost entirely told the movie its story and emotions.

A really great and also certainly unique and a one of a kind movie. The Australian version won't change that.

8/10

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